yet hale and strong, wi' the hand o' the Lord
protectin' me. 'The Lord is my shepherd; therefore can I lack
nothing. He shall feed me in a green pasture, and lead me forth
beside the waters of comfort. He shall convert my soul . . .'

"I don't know how it happened, sir, but of a sudden a well o' warmth
ran through me and all over me, just like a spring burstin'. 'Waters
o' Comfort?' Ay, maybe . . . maybe. Funny things happen on
Christmas Eve, they say. My old mother believed to her last day that
every Christmas Eve at midnight the cattle in their challs went down
on their knees, throughout the land . . .

"But the feelin', if you understand me, wasn't Christmas-like at all.
It had started with green pastures: and green pastures ran in my
head, with brooks, and birds singin' away up aloft and bees hummin'
all 'round, and the sunshine o' the Lord warmin' everything and
warmin' my heart . . . I felt the walls of the cuddy chokin' me of a
sudden, an' went on deck.

"A fine night it was, up there. Very clear with a hint o' frost--no
moon. As I remember, she was in her first quarter and had gone down
some while. The tide had turned and was makin' in steady. I could
hear it clap-clappin' past the _Maid in Two Minds_--she lay a little
outside of us, to seaward, and we had swung so that her ridin' light
come over our starboard how. Out beyond her the lighthouse on the
breakwater kept flashin'--it's red over the anchorage--an' away
beyond that the 'Stone. Astern was all the half-circle o' Plymouth
lights--like the front of a crown o' glory. And the stars overhead,
sir!--not so much as a wisp o' cloud to hide 'em.

"'Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His
star in the east . . .'I'd always been curious about that star,
sir,--whether 'twas an ordinary one or one sent by miracle: and,
years before, I'd argued it out that the Lord wouldn't send one like
a flash in the pan, but--bein' thoughtful in all things--would leave
it to come back constant every year and bring assurance, if ye looked
for it. After that, I began to look regularly, studying the sky from
the first week of December on to Christmas: and 'twasn't long before
I felt certain. 'Tis a star--they call it Regulus in the books, for
I've looked it out--that gets up in the south-east in December month:
pretty low, and yet full high enough to stand over a cottage; one o'
the brightest too, and easily known, for it carries five other